Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct name of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, for which Regina Stivers works.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Just before Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear announced Wednesday that he plans to sue companies for illegally marketing opioids, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers questioned whether a similar case was settled two years ago to avoid a potential conflict of interest for Beshear.

Beshear said his office is committed to holding the companies that contributed to Kentucky's drug epidemic accountable. To that end, he plans to file up to 10 new lawsuits against drug manufacturers, distributors and retailers for illegally marketing and selling opioids.

The state took similar action years ago when it sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma for misleading people about how addictive that particular narcotic is. But Stivers said Beshear's predecessor, former Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway, settled that case for "pennies on the dollar" in December 2015 just before Beshear was sworn into office.

The state got $24 million from that settlement, but Stivers said Conway had previously indicated that the case could be worth much more than that.

Beshear used to work for a law firm that represented Purdue Pharma — Stites and Harbison, where his father, former Governor Steve Beshear, now works. And Stivers suggested that the specter of potential conflicts for Beshear, due to his former employer, may have been part of the reason Conway settled the case.

The Senate president said he plans to try to intervene in a pending — but well-advanced — lawsuit aimed at opening sealed records from that litigation "to have full disclosure and bring to light what happened in the Purdue Pharma case."

Stat, a health publication produced by Boston Globe Media, is trying to get a court to release the secret records, which potentially could shed light on what Purdue Pharma executives knew about the addictive drug they were marketing.

Beshear said Wednesday afternoon that he was not a participant in the Purdue Pharma case when he worked for Stites and Harbison. He also said he had nothing to do with Conway's decision to settle the case and didn't receive any money from that settlement.

“It is wrong to politicize our opioid epidemic or use it against each other in this state. Too many families have died," he said. "Shame on President Stivers."

Beshear also said his office is legally prohibited from taking a position regarding the sealed documents because of the settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma and a related court order.

Conway said later Wednesday that he never discussed the case with Beshear. "Given potential problems on appeal, given that we faced evidentiary rulings that might limit our damages and that this litigation had been protracted to begin, with I think the $24 million settlement was a fair one," Conway said.

Beshear said his office is searching for a private firm to work with on these forthcoming cases against pharmaceutical companies and issued a related request for proposals Wednesday. Whatever firm they select won't receive compensation from the state unless a settlement or ruling is reached, he said.

The request for proposals mentions the California-based McKesson Corp., a pharmaceutical distributor, as a possible target of future litigation.

"It is my duty to ensure that those companies that have profited in the billions from this flood of addictive opioids — and who knew how addictive these opioids were — are held responsible, become a part of the solution and invest back in the communities that they have helped to decimate," he said.

And the attorney general took his own political shot at Stivers on Wednesday when he pointed out that the Senate president's wife, Regina Stivers, works in Gov. Matt Bevin's administration as deputy secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. Her salary, according to the state government's transparency website, is $118,000.

"I know that that $100,000 job that the governor has provided to your spouse, who he could let go at any time, creates pressure," Beshear said, directing his comments at Stivers during a press conference. "But this is far too important."

John Cox, Stivers's spokesman, pointed out late Wednesday afternoon that Regina Stivers has over a decade of experience working in state and federal government.

"It seems pretty sexist that the attorney general would be so dismissive of Regina Stivers' prior career in state and federal government, seemingly suggesting the only reason she holds her current position is because she is married to the Senate president," Cox said.

Stivers and Beshear's political sparring over the opioid epidemic came one day after the state government released a report that showed Jefferson County had a 36 percent increase in overdose deaths in 2016 compared to 2015. Overdoses climbed 7.4 percent statewide during the same timeframe.